Job 8

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 Bildad of Shuah spoke next. He said:	1 Bildad the Shuhite spoke out and said:
2 How much longer are you going to talk like this and go blustering on in this way?	2 How long will you utter such things? The words from your mouth are like a mighty wind!
3 Can God deflect the course of right or Shaddai falsify justice?	3 Does God pervert judgment, and does the Almighty distort justice?
4 If your sons sinned against him, he has punished them for their wrong-doing.	4 If your children have sinned against him and he has left them in the grip of their guilt,
5 You for your part, if you are pure and honest, must now seek God, plead with Shaddai.	5 Still, if you yourself have recourse to God and make supplication to the Almighty,
6 Forthwith his light wil shine on you and he wil restore an upright man's house to prosperity.	6 Should you be blameless and upright, surely now he will awake for you and restore your rightful domain;
7 Your former state wil seem as nothing to you, so great wil your future be.	7 Your former state will be of little moment, for in time to come you will flourish indeed.
8 Question the generation that has passed, meditate on the experience of its ancestors-	8 If you inquire of the former generations, and give heed to the experience of the fathers
9 for we children of yesterday, we know nothing, our life on earth passes like a shadow-	9 (As we are but of yesterday and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are but a shadow),
10 but they wil teach you, they will tel you, and their thought is expressed in these sayings,	10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter their words of understanding?
11 'Can papyrus flourish except in marshes? Without water can the rushes grow?	11 Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the reed grass flourish without water?
12 Even when green and before being cut, fastest of al plants they wither.	12 While it is yet green and uncut, it withers quicker than any grass.
13 Such is the fate of al who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.	13 So is the end of everyone who forgets God, and so shall the hope of the godless man perish.
14 His hope is nothing but gossamer, his confidence a spider's web.	14 His confidence is but a gossamer thread and his trust is a spider's web.
15 Let him lean on his house, it wil not stand firm; cling to it, it wil not hold.	15 He shall rely upon his family, but it shall not last; he shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.
16 Like some lush plant in the sunlight, he sent his young shoots sprouting over the garden;	16 He is full of sap before sunrise, and beyond his garden his shoots go forth;
17 but his roots were twined in a heap of stones, he drew his life among the rocks.	17 About a heap of stones are his roots entwined; among the rocks he takes hold.
18 Snatch him from his bed, and it denies it ever saw him.	18 Yet if one tears him from his place, it will disown him: "I have never seen you!"
19 Now he rots on the roadside, and others are springing up in the soil.	19 There he lies rotting beside the road, and out of the soil another sprouts.
20 Believe me, God neither spurns anyone of integrity, nor lends his aid to the evil.	20 Behold, God will not cast away the upright; neither will he take the hand of the wicked.
21 Once again laughter may fil your mouth and cries of joy break from your lips.	21 Once more will he fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing.
22 Your enemies will be covered with shame and the tent of the wicked wil vanish!'	22 They that hate you shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked shall be no more.